Championship Betting Round Up

A round up of the weekend's Championship betting with odds taken from bwin (where you can also get a free bet up to £25)

This weekend sees a full programme of games in the Championship and, as ever, there are some intriguing looking ties. Most notably, high-flying Brighton take on Peterborough on Saturday and Steve McLaren's Nottingham Forest meet West Ham United in the live Sky game on Sunday.

Brighton have started the season on fire, taking ten points from their opening four games as well as knocking Premier League Sunderland out of the Carling Cup. Albion boss Gus Poyet has assembled a solid squad of players and in Will Hoskins and Craig Mackail-Smith, the Seagulls have one of the best forward pairings in the division. Brighton have odds of 10/11 to claim all three points, which looks great value given their superb start to the campaign.

That said, Peterborough also go into the game in great form having already posted two victories since their return to English football's second tier. Darren Ferguson's side inflicted a 7-1 defeat on Ipswich last weekend and if Posh are in such form again this Saturday the quote of 11/4 for a Peterborough victory will pay off handsomely.

The other big game of the weekend in the Championship is the clash between Nottingham Forest and West Ham United at the City Ground on Sunday. Both sides were strongly fancied for promotion before the season got underway. West Ham have fared the better of the two sides in the early exchanges, picking up seven points from their last three games after going down to an opening defeat at home to Cardiff. Sam Allardyce's side also have great form on the road as they have scored five goals without reply in their two league games away from Upton Park to date.

Forest seem to be getting used to life under former Middlesbrough and England boss Steve McClaren. The capture of Ishmael Miller from West Brom should improve Forest offensively as the Tricky Trees look to climb up the Championship table. Forest are unbeaten in their last three games and McClaren's side will be keen to prove themselves against one of the biggest sides in the division.

In the outright market for the Championship, West Ham are now 2/1 favourites, a price that could contract even further if the Hammers can take all their points from their trip to Forest. Southampton's positive start to the season has seen the Saints installed as second favourites at 5/1 while high flying Brighton can still be backed at 9/1, which looks to be an extremely tempting price given the way they have come flying out of the blocks.